You’re probably familiar with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) the nonprofit organization whose talks are viewed by countless individuals online. They’ve been around since 1984 (How Orwellian!) and have over 1,000 talks available online for free viewing. The speakers get a maximum of 18 minutes to present their subject matter in what is usually a very entertaining and educational speech.
Contained in those videos are a plethora of ideas and learning potential, but TED has taken the idea of education even further and created TED-Ed. TED-Ed has a large and growing video library available for viewing. The platform allows users to take any video from any online resource, not just the TED-Ed videos, and create customized lessons around them. You’re allowed to then distribute these lessons publicly or privately then track how they affect a single student, an entire class, or the world.
This 3 minute video introduces you to the concepts, resources and application of TED-Ed.
It seems like a very powerful and easy to use tool that will be of interest to not only teachers, but anyone who wishes to convey information in a fun and interactive platform. Individuals just interested in learning will find the educational videos fun to watch. Along with several expected subjects, there’s even a section called Questions No One (Yet) Knows The Answers To.
Here’s a fun video called Just How Small is an Atom? that shows you just how much empty space there really is inside of what we perceive to be solid. It uses everyday items as size comparisons to help you wrap your brain around just how much emptiness there is in the stuff everything’s made of.
This is a flexible, powerful, interactive tool for education that’s available for free to anyone who wants to use it for any purpose you desire. It has just been introduced and is already an impressive resource for learning and customizing lessons on a wide array of subjects.
Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to visit the TED-Ed website and watch videos there or on the TED-Ed YouTube channel. You’ll be glad you did and you’ll definitely learn something in the process.
The best part? You’ll have fun doing it.
Senior Editor for Three If By Space. Tom first became interested in science fiction & science as a very young child thanks to his parents. His earliest memories of enjoying scifi were sitting with his dad watching first-run episodes of the original Star Trek. Although a fan of nearly all forms of scripted television, Tom’s preferences skew heavily toward hard science fiction.
